Renal transplantation and sleep: a new life is not enough

Renal transplantation is associated with better survival and improved quality of life compared to maintenance dialysis. Although many sleep disorders improve or even disappear after a successful transplantation, sleep quality remains low, and the prevalence of sleep complaints, although lower than in dialysis patients, is much higher than in the general population. Few studies have dealt with sleep problems of renal transplant patients: despite reporting obvious differences in the prevalence of the single sleep disorders, all underline the importance of psychological problems in conditioning sleep. In the diagnosis of sleep disorders, the nephrologist must learn to distinguish medical risk factors (pain, pruritus, tremors, drugs) and psychological aspects (depression, anxiety, fear), since they are potentially modifiable with the appropriate treatment.